Tag: hair

Hair…ahhh, hair. My passion, my reason, my inspiration. Hair means many more things than just dead strands connected to my head. It’s the only thing I wanted to learn about after high school. My hair is like an old friend that has been there since the beginning. Through the good cuts, the bad colors..it’s been there for me. My hair has changed and grown the same way I have as a person. When I was lost, didn’t know who I was or how to be happy, I chopped it above my ears, then bleached it…then colored it red. When I was trying to cover up my feelings and bad hair choices…I bought a wig (or 10). It may sound silly or like I am making it up, but it is true. About 7 years ago I put an end to that rollercoaster and was ready to be consistent, persistent, the best version of myself I could be. And since then, my hair has been altered a little bit here and there but for the most part it has stayed the same. Just like I have. And as time goes by, I tweaked it a little bit, just like I tweaked myself.

I color my own hair. I don’t have to, but I choose to. Mostly because my inspiration comes at times of the day that no salon would ever be open. It’s after the kids go to bed, and I look in the mirror deciding I deserve to be pampered for once. This is what happened tonight. I wanted a brighter look, and a couple inches chopped off as well. See this is the thing about changing your hair. You can go blonder, or longer. But you can’t do both at the same time. If you are going to brighten your hair and take the plunge and put that bleach on it, you have to be ready to get a good trim after. And don’t forget a conditioning treatment! Your hair and your skin are very porous and if you are going to take the moisture out, you have to put it back in. Sometimes I skip the treatment and I regret it after. Luckily tonight I was hungry so I just stuffed my face while waiting for the treatment to absorb in to my hair!
When I do my own hair, it is therapeutic for me. I carefully decide which strand goes where. And with each stroke of the brush I feel invigorated and excited for the new me that is about to reveal itself! My hair does not turn blonde very easy, so I have had to repeat this process every few months. And I am still not done. In a few months, I will brighten it a bit more again. (and trim, and condition).
If you are planning to get balayage or go lighter in any way, do know it does not happen overnight. It has taken me a very long time to get the bright pieces in my hair that I do have. And if you put trust in your stylist, they can achieve this for you. But don’t skip the trim, don’t skip the conditioning treatment. Treat yourself and treat your hair right and it will thank you!
I love my new look, and the precious ends I cut off will grow back again (slowly but surely) I am growing my layers out so I have to consistently cut the bottom off and leave the layers alone for a bit so they can catch up with my ends. I will be slowly adding some blonder pieces to this look to hopefully achieve a very icy blonde on my ends. If you are looking for something new with your hair, don’t be scared! Find that person you trust and let them tweak your hair a bit, you will feel just as invigorated as I do! I promise it will give you that pep in your step you are looking for. When I have a great hair day I feel like I can go out and accomplish anything! With confidence. Have a great rest of the week everyone!

I got this oil in my Ipsy bag a couple months ago. It’s a Macadamia Oil Treatment. You can use it as a styling oil before you blow dry. But it gave me a recipe to make a sea salt spray with it. I figured hey why not give it a try. Does anybody else feel like they are just spraying water on their hair when they do this!? Like, I just went through all the trouble of blow drying and curling my hair, and now you want me to spray water on it? I wonder if this would work better on somebody with naturally curly hair. I was told to use one cup of warm water, 1 tablespoon sea salt and 1-2 teaspoons of the oil. I was so excited to make it and I am kind of sad that I wasn’t happy with the results. I left my hair feeling a little bit try to, I assume that was the sea salt. Maybe more of the oil would help counteract that and keep some moisture? Anyway, that was my experience with it! I would love to know if any of you you sea salt spray on your hair and if it is beneficial for you.

Another thing… I feel like all I see all over the internet is advertisements. I mean, I know we all have businesses to run and we are all trying to make it in this world. And hustling is part of that. But it is so hard to believe what is a good product and what is not in this world. And hustling is part of that. Even celebrities, all you see on their social media is unplugging this and that. Will we really do anything for a dollar? It is so hard to believe what is a good product and what is not because everybody is just advertising everything to death. So many hair vitamins, tanning products, skin products, makeup products. It is just hard to weed through all of it and figure out what are the good ones and what ones people are just trying to plug to make a quick dollar. There are so many MLM companies too..lipsense, R & F, essential oils, mascaras, lula roe, Amway, etc. People claiming that they are an entrepreneur when they sell this stuff. Being an entrepreneur means that you start your own business by creating your own product. Not by selling something somebody else created. I’m sure they are all great products and I do know people that sell each of those, so I’m definitely not dogging that. I just wonder how much of it is about the products and how much of it is about bragging about how much money you make selling your products so you can recruit people to do it with you. It just seems odd to me that people have to brag about how much money they are making selling a product. I definitely don’t like to talk about how much money I am bringing in, why do people selling these products feel the need to talk about that? I think this is just our generation. This is how people sell products now, especially stay-at-home moms who want to be able to work at home. I totally get it, I just can’t get myself to get into that world. The moral of this rant is I just don’t know what to spend my money on anymore, of course we all want great products I just want to make sure I am buying the right ones and putting my money into the right businesses. I wish everybody I know success! Whatever it is they choose to do. Ciao lovelies!

So here we are finally, warm weather has arrived. More like hot, sweat in places you don’t dare admit kind of weather. Am I the only one who has been tempted to throw their hair up in a messy bun everyday? As a hairstylist, it just feels wrong. Like I’ve thrown in the towel or something! Can’t give up..never give up! I’ve been trying to figure out ways to bear the heat, but also look somewhat presentable. I don’t mind my hair down, I just want it out of my face and I was sick of just tucking it behind my ears. I found something that looks cute, and keeps my hair out of my face. I just take a mohawk section on top of my head seperate it into 3 sections. And I twist them and pin them..so simple! If I want to get real creative I will braid them. But not everybody can do that on themselves, twisting seems much simpler. And if I get super hot during the day I can put my hair in a low bun with this look and it still looks pretty cute.

It is also time to not be bloated season. This is hard for me because I do love my salt in my carbs, but I’m trying to cut back and all the yucky stuff right now. I actually managed to gain a few pounds recently and I think it’s because I have been experimenting with cooking. Must be all that naan! Darn you mediterranean fopd for being so good! It is time to think of light meals, like yummy salads! I experimented today and made a salad with dried cherries, apple chunks, Gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, chicken, and of course – lettuce. Why the only one that could do without lettuce and a salad? All of the add-ins are what I love to eat! For example, I love to just cut up tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta cheese and put some olive oil, lemon juice, and salt on it. So refreshing! For my salad dressing today I used 4 oz olive oil, 2 oz balsamic vinegar, and 2 oz red wine vinegar and seasoned the dressing with garlic powder, brown sugar, salt, and seasoned salt. This dressing is really good on a Greek salad too! I sauteed the chicken on a pan with half butter and olive oil. I seasoned the chicken with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and seasoned salt. And was really good black and chicken! Tastes so good on a salad too or in a wrap.

Hair. To some people, it’s just a bunch of strands on their head and they do their best to avoid having to deal with it. But to me, it’s everything! That was only thing I ever wanted to do after high school was go to cosmetology school and learn to make people beautiful! And I wanted to experiment on my own hair as well of course! And that I did, I tried every color, cut it as short as above my ears.. do I regret it? I really don’t, it all grew back eventually. And the 20 pounds I gained there all came off too :-O! And I’m glad to say I tried it because I could never cut my hair that short again! And thankfully I don’t have the down time that I did in Beauty School to sit and eat takeout restaurant food every day.

If you are scared to try new things to your hair, but you have thought about it, I have found a solution! I recently put pink in my hair and it is washing out fairly quickly. So I looked around my beauty supply and found that they have professional temporary hair mascaras that wash out as soon as you shampoo your hair. I bought a pink and a teal because I do love those two colors! And now I can put a splash of color in my hair anytime I want, with no commitment! I just thought I would share the love with you guys, these come in many collors so if you are wanting to try a pop of color and your hair, try these first! No commitment, but lots of fun! Maybe you want to rock your red lipstick and put a couple strands of red in your hair that day as well, go for it! You can find these hair mascaras on Amazon here! They are called Colorme by Giuliano Professional.

I applied this after blow drying and curling my hair and I just kind of free-hand lightly applied the color with the mascara wand on the strands that I wanted. If you want a lot of it in your hair, pull each strand out that you want colored and hold it with a lot of tension and brush it on. Enjoy!!

Today started off a little rough. My daughter didn’t want to go to gymnastics and we ended up leaving with her kicking and screaming. I couldn’t force her to go back in to her class, but I could take away the afternoon of fun I promised her afterwards: a day at the outdoor mall. It was hard to take that away because her little sister and I were really looking forward to it too! Why do we have to suffer for her bad fortune dang it!!!

This whole parenting thing is tough..and my oldest has tested me since birth..she is super full of emotion and uses it to test my every nerve right until bedtime. She is in for a rude awakening come Kindergarten…people aren’t going to be catering to her every move. Anyway..she promised to make up her class on another day this week and we will give the mall another go. Wish us luck!

Since I had my afternoon free, I decided to touch up my ombre a bit. If that sentence confuses you, I added some brighter highlights to the ends of my hair…hahaha! Sometimes I need to freshen the hair up, especially for a new season!! I also added in a select few rose.gold pieces that no one will notice..I will need to add a few more pink pieces in soon..which will be easy because I color my hair myself!!! I am my pickiest client 😀

Target had their shoes buy one get one 1/2 off yesterday..which was perfect because my youngest girl and I needed some new kicks! I found these awesome slip-on sneakers in gray and they are super comfortable..especially at the ankles. I can’t wait to rock them all Summer with shorts. They look great with pants and yogas too! Of course I had to buy some gray shirts to match them (I have a matchy matchy problem). Luckily clearance had some cute options! I realize the tank is meant for St. Pattys day..but I am gonna sport it all Summer anyway! I love the shorts too because they are that perfect length..not too short not too tight! You can find the shoes here. Their shoes are still bogo half off right now too!! The hats I am rocking in the pics are from last Summer. The gray one is from Target, and the black one is Express. As you all know I bargain shop so I found the Target hat on Poshmark and the Express one at a second hand store. Target has a ton of cute floppy hats, check them out here!! My shorts can be found here. Happy shopping! I wish you all great hair and shoes for the season!!

Here is a side profile of my hair color..if you’ve never tried ombre before..try it! I keep my roots natural so I only touch up my hair when I WANT to.

When I worked in a salon, we were given a lot of education not only about hair techniques, but what happens when product is applied to the hair. Your hair is like a spongue and absorbs everything, good and bad given to it. I had a lot of clients complaining about how often they have to wash their hair and how oily their scalps get after one day since washing! So I asked them “how are you applying your conditioner?” Most people put a quarter size glob of conditioner in their hair, applied it to the top of their head and worked it into the rest of their hair from there. Well, this is not the proper way to apply conditioner. Your scalp already produces its own oils, and your hair closest to your scalp is NEW hair, it hasn’t seen the same sun, heat, and color damage as your ends have. Your roots don’t need much moisturizing, if any. The proper way to condition is to apply the quarter size amount first to your mids-ends, then whatever is left on your hands after that (it won’t be much) can be distributed to the top half of your hair. This will give you a couple extra days between washing.

Now, if dry hair is an issue, you need more than conditioner. Most women these days color their hair regularly. Most get some sort of highlight/ombre/balayage as well. That can take a toll on your hair and cause long-term damage if you are not doing deep conditioning treatments. I have tried many treatments in my days, and my favorite thus far is the Mythic Oil Masque and Oil Bar. You can use the Masque alone if you want, but when you mix the oil in with it, it is like magic!! NEVER use the oil alone, your hair will look SO greasy afterwards and there is no washing it out. It is meant to be used with the Masque. If your hair is extremely dry, you can even use the masque as a regular conditioner. These 2 products are a pretty decent price on Amazon. Mythic Oil Masque / Mythic Oil Bar. The best way for your hair to absorb this masque is to sit under heat for 15 minutes, and sit out for 15 minutes. Rinse with cool water so your hair cuticle can close and seal in that silkiness!! Also, don’t forget to use some sort of product that works on your hair before you blowdry! It protects your hair from the heat of a blowdryer/flat iron. My favorite is Paul Mitchell Skinny Serum. It works on ALL hair types…even thin, oily hair!! It smells delish as well. Happy conditioning!! If you have any questions, please feel free to message me!!

After I conditioned I blow-dried with Paul Mitchell Skinny Serum and curled my hair with a 1-1/4 inch iron, curling each strand in opposite direction as the previous. (This gives more texture than curling each strand in the same direction)